Undergarment



(No Model.) E. A CLEMENTS;

UNDERGARMENT.

No. 599,118. Pat ent ed Feb. 15,1898.-

WITNESSES. INVENTOB HE mums PErzns pmwo'm-uma, WASHINGYON u c UNITED STATES PAT NT OFFICE.

EILERT A. CLEMENTS, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

UNDERGARMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters .Patent No. 599,118, dated February 15, 1898.

Application filed May 14, 1897.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EILERT A. CLEMENTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and State of Michigan,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Underwear; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in underwear, and more particularly to the, upper and front portion of an undershirt or union garment; and its object is to provide the same with certain new and useful features, hereinafter more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure lis a front elevation of a device embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 a front elevation of the same with the front portion broken away to better show the construction.

Like letters refer to like parts in both figures.

Only the upper portion of the garment is shown, and the lower part may be finished either to form an undershirt or it may be extended and formed into a union suit without in any wise affecting my invention, which invention relates to the upper part of the garment only.

In the drawings, A is the back portion of the garment, which is extended forward and over the shoulders and thence downward over the chest, forming the protecting-flaps B B. It is also provided with the neck-opening O and a vertical opening D, dividing said flaps, the adjacent edges of which are provided with any suitable facing E and secured to each other by buttons or otherwise, as convenient. The front E terminates in a substantially horizontal line across the front and a short distance below the top of the shoulders and is provided with a concavity G in its edge opposite and below the neck-opening O. The upper edge of this front F is secured to the garment adjacent tothe shoulders by buttons H or other convenient fastenings, and the edges of the front F and the edges of the flaps B are both sewed to the sleeve at the Serial No. 636,524. (No model.)

armholes. It will be observed that the. flaps B are disconnected from the body of the garment below the armhole portions.

I thus provide a garment having a double thickness over the chest where the outer garments are usually most open and the body least protected thereby. I also. provide a convenient construction of easy fabrication on a knitting-machine and with openings for admitting the body that are not superposed, and thus if left unsecured do not materially reduce the effectiveness of the garment as a protection to the body.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein-described undershirt, con sisting of a back portion, a'longitudinallydivided chest-covering portion joined to said back portion by the shoulder portions of the garment, means for securing the edges of said divided chest portion together, an undivided front portion extending unbrokenly over said divided chest portion, means for securing the upper edge of said front portion detachably to the garment adjacent to said shoulder portions, and the sleeves attached to said back, chest and front portions at the armholes, substantially as shown and described.

2. The herein-described undershirt, consisting of a back portion extended forward and downward to form chest-protecting flaps and formed with a neck-opening, means for securing the edges of said flaps detachably together, an undivided front portion extending unbrokenly over said divided flaps and detachably secured to the garment adjacent to the shoulders, said front portion terminatin g in a substantially horizontal line near the shoulders and having a concavity in the upper edge opposite the neck-opening, and the sleeves, to which sleeves said back, flaps and front portion are all permanently attached at the armholes, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature 

